


Brueghel's Icarus

by EarthAndSilver



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Greek Mythology - Freeform, Inspired by Art, Poetry, ekphrasis, icarus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-10
Updated: 2015-07-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 15:29:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4310571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthAndSilver/pseuds/EarthAndSilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shore is small, and the skies are wide. How did it feel to fly? Poem based on Brueghel's Icarus, originally written for a workshop at school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brueghel's Icarus

Is it just another day  
On the brown and crowded shore?  
Does the mule in the narrow field  
Hear anything odd?  
Does the fisherman have a catch?  
Do the sheep not startle?  
Where rove the shepherd’s eyes—  
Towards a bird? A cloud? Your father?  
Was it worth it?  
Did you see the world from your winding prison walls  
In this same crunched perspective—  
Narrow edge by narrow edge,  
And barely room for beasts or man?  
Is it accident that safe and homey shores appear so small,  
And skies and seas so vast?  
Was it cold? Was it bracing, thrilling, energizing,  
To fly among the clouds—  
Crystal breaths of ice, storehouses of rain—  
Where gods and birds and Pegasus may tread?  
Were you drunk with joy to fly so high,  
After the claustrophobic horror  
Of the half-man monster’s maze?  
Why lies the sun so low?  
They say you flew too far,  
The air too hot,  
Your wings clipped by Helios’ flames.  
Is it hubris, then, to reach for the horizon?


End file.
